2023-24 NBA Season Discussion

[parsnips33]

Is Porzingis supposed to be ready for Game 1? Hoping for a more competitive series than either of the conference finals

[AEnigma]

It makes him UNC Michael Jordan.

No, it makes him a loser lmao. All these semantics when it’s simple, Tatum outplays Luka and wins a ring, he is simply better. It ain’t complicated. You got people saying that Kyrie and Luka are the best back court ever, so they should be able to easily outplay (notice I didn’t say win) James worthy and no left hand brown but they won’t so we’re already seeing excuses

Yeah I have Rip Hamilton above Reggie Miller for the same reason.

[bigboi]

It makes him UNC Michael Jordan.

No, it makes him a loser lmao. All these semantics when it’s simple, Tatum outplays Luka and wins a ring, he is simply better. It ain’t complicated. You got people saying that Kyrie and Luka are the best back court ever, so they should be able to easily outplay (notice I didn’t say win) James worthy and no left hand brown but they won’t so we’re already seeing excuses

Yeah I have Rip Hamilton above Reggie Miller for the same reason.

Not my business. You do you. If you’re making excuses for Luka already, he simply isn’t that guy.

We went from Jokic is Jordan level and nuggets will run the west to kat, Reid and gonert are best defensive trio ever and best defense ever to Luka is the best and him/kyrie best backcourt ever and even if tatum averages 40 on him, it’s luck. The narratives are predictable, oh well I’ll let yall cry when Tatum wins and then wins again.

[Ambrose]

No, it makes him a loser lmao. All these semantics when it’s simple, Tatum outplays Luka and wins a ring, he is simply better. It ain’t complicated. You got people saying that Kyrie and Luka are the best back court ever, so they should be able to easily outplay (notice I didn’t say win) James worthy and no left hand brown but they won’t so we’re already seeing excuses

Yeah I have Rip Hamilton above Reggie Miller for the same reason.

Not my business. You do you. If you’re making excuses for Luka already, he simply isn’t that guy.

We went from Jokic is Jordan level and nuggets will run the west to kat, Reid and gonert are best defensive trio ever and best defense ever to Luka is the best and him/kyrie best backcourt ever and even if tatum averages 40 on him, it’s luck. The narratives are predictable, oh well I’ll let yall cry when Tatum wins and then wins again.

You took numerous different GB narratives here, none of which AE would've supported, and somehow tried to spin that into some kind of case against him. Try to make a real argument.

[bigboi]

Yeah I have Rip Hamilton above Reggie Miller for the same reason.

Not my business. You do you. If you’re making excuses for Luka already, he simply isn’t that guy.

We went from Jokic is Jordan level and nuggets will run the west to kat, Reid and gonert are best defensive trio ever and best defense ever to Luka is the best and him/kyrie best backcourt ever and even if tatum averages 40 on him, it’s luck. The narratives are predictable, oh well I’ll let yall cry when Tatum wins and then wins again.

You took numerous different GB narratives here, none of which AE would've supported, and somehow tried to spin that into some kind of case against him. Try to make a real argument.

No, these were common player comparisons takes. And AE or some dude already said if Tatum 3peated, it’s because of luck and it means nothing if he outplays Luka. So no, I will not take a different take. Ae called Tatum James worthy as well so I’m standing with my argument and James worthy is about to spank luka

[TheGOATRises007]

The amount of Tatum stanning going on from that person, you'd think he's going for a 3-peat right now.

[jalengreen]

Is Porzingis supposed to be ready for Game 1? Hoping for a more competitive series than either of the conference finals

I think it'd be a big surprise if he isn't, yeah. It seemed like he had a good chance at returning in the ECF and now he gets a full week to recover on top of that.

[jalengreen]

I am expecting a couple of game 5 2016 GSW type of duo performances from Luka and Kyrie this series.

I agree and this is EXACTLY why I wanted this series to happen.

Basketball peaked in 2016 for me and anytime we get something that resembles that is a good thing.

Well hopefully there are more competitive games this year than there were in the 2016 Finals

[Texas Chuck]

I think light beer Luka is going have a great Finals. May not be enough as Boston is really good and their 3-pt shooting is a real problem from how Dallas likes to defend. But I expect Luka to announce himself on the biggest of stages.

And end of games Luka vs Jrue is a matchup I can't wait for. Best on best, let's go.

[Special_Puppy]

I think light beer Luka is going have a great Finals. May not be enough as Boston is really good and their 3-pt shooting is a real problem from how Dallas likes to defend. But I expect Luka to announce himself on the biggest of stages.

And end of games Luka vs Jrue is a matchup I can't wait for. Best on best, let's go.

Is Holiday going to be the one guarding Luka? He might not be big enough

[Outside]

I think light beer Luka is going have a great Finals. May not be enough as Boston is really good and their 3-pt shooting is a real problem from how Dallas likes to defend. But I expect Luka to announce himself on the biggest of stages.

And end of games Luka vs Jrue is a matchup I can't wait for. Best on best, let's go.

Is Holiday going to be the one guarding Luka? He might not be big enough

Jrue is pretty strong though, on top of having great point of attack defense skills. He'll have his turn on Luka. Not that anyone is going to stop Luka, but we'll see who can slow him down without fouling.

[trex_8063]

I think light beer Luka is going have a great Finals. May not be enough as Boston is really good and their 3-pt shooting is a real problem from how Dallas likes to defend. But I expect Luka to announce himself on the biggest of stages.

And end of games Luka vs Jrue is a matchup I can't wait for. Best on best, let's go.

Is Holiday going to be the one guarding Luka? He might not be big enough

I anticipate Luka getting a lot of looks: Holiday, White, Brown, probably even Tatum. I suspect Holiday will actually spend more time on Kyrie, though; guessing White and Brown will be the primaries on Luka.

[jalengreen]

I think light beer Luka is going have a great Finals. May not be enough as Boston is really good and their 3-pt shooting is a real problem from how Dallas likes to defend. But I expect Luka to announce himself on the biggest of stages.

And end of games Luka vs Jrue is a matchup I can't wait for. Best on best, let's go.

Is Holiday going to be the one guarding Luka? He might not be big enough

I anticipate Luka getting a lot of looks: Holiday, White, Brown, probably even Tatum. I suspect Holiday will actually spend more time on Kyrie, though; guessing White and Brown will be the primaries on Luka.

White's a pretty bad matchup for Luka imo. JB will probably be his primary defender, while the Mavs will try to hunt White when they can.

[Cavsfansince84]

I don't think this series will be some kind of verdict on any of the big 4 involved short of Luka averaging like 35/10/10 on high efficiency in a Mavs win. To me this is about how much better Boston is at 3-6 with Jrue, White and possibly KP. Which doesn't necessarily mean that Boston has to win but that's where the difference will be if they do win I think. Dallas is going to need either Washington or Jones to really step up while playing very sharp defense to win the title. Boston can afford to have their big 2 outplayed by Dallas' in a way that Dallas can't.

[Texas Chuck]

I don't think this series will be some kind of verdict on any of the big 4 involved

Oh I agree it doesn't necessarily have to be. But I think we all know it will be. Not for Brown unless he is the best player in the series. But win or lose people will definitely be trying to write legacies in tattoo ink for the other 3. I'll have to avoid that kind of NBA discourse in favor of team building/off-season talk because the knee jerks will aggravate me too much.

I think its probably the worst for Tatum if he doesn't win. Some people will still give Luka more time and while there will definitely be the Kyrie can only win with Lebron talk, it will be Tatum who will be seen as just not quite good enough even with a loaded team. Especially if he has few bad shooting games in a loss. Won't matter he's only 1 year older than Luka because his teams have been deep and good from the jump.


Hopefully though we have a great series with Tatum and Luka having a Duncan/Dirk 06 battle with the same results -- a Mavs game 7 road OT win. And the hot takes can be left in the oven.

[dygaction]

How many conference finalist 1-seeds also got the #1 overall pick.

He is modern James Worthy without Magic.

Well modern James worthy is about to outplay yall new goat since yall moved on from Jokic. And I don’t want to hear any excuses when he does. We’ll be laughing our way to a ring. If Luka is getting outplayed by James worthy, what does that make him?

Celtics have 5 James Worthies though.

[RCM88x]

How many conference finalist 1-seeds also got the #1 overall pick.

He is modern James Worthy without Magic.

Well modern James worthy is about to outplay yall new goat since yall moved on from Jokic. And I don’t want to hear any excuses when he does. We’ll be laughing our way to a ring. If Luka is getting outplayed by James worthy, what does that make him?

Celtics have 5 James Worthies though.

Eh maybe 4 and 1 Norm Nixon lol

[Pelly24]

Regardless of whether Kyrie is first ballot HOF, this is the best I've ever seen him play.

I think that 2019 Kyrie was probably the best version of him on paper, but he went out very ugly in the playoffs so idk

Every time I watch clips of that 2019 Bucks series it just feels so strange. I don't even remember some crazy defense, it just looked like him shooting like an absolute amateur and losing his composure. But he was spectacular that year during the regular season, and even pretty good against the Pacers. He'd have games with 26 points, 9 rebounds, 9 assists and 6 steals and 2 blocks, 26 points and 13 assists, 38 and 12, 40 and 10, he would hit timely shots at exactly the moment it was needed. He was like a faster Chauncey Billups or something that year. I think Kyrie is capable of this now, but it's a layer he's not required to access as much because he defers to Luka, but he'd show it sometimes when Luka sat for a game. This is Kyrie's most well-rounded playoff stretch though. I think his OKC series is misunderstood, he basically let himself get doubled and didn't work hard to get extra shots and he became 2019 playoffs Kyle Lowry.

And people are saying he's been "engaged" on defense, but nah. He's been *lockdown* this whole playoff run. Like teams have tried to take advantage of his size and it simply hasn't worked. He's been active and decisive and impactful off ball and on ball. It's a dimension D Mitchell, Trae Young, Dame and most other guards simply don't have.

[parsnips33]

Regardless of whether Kyrie is first ballot HOF, this is the best I've ever seen him play.

I think that 2019 Kyrie was probably the best version of him on paper, but he went out very ugly in the playoffs so idk

Every time I watch clips of that 2019 Bucks series it just feels so strange. I don't even remember some crazy defense, it just looked like him shooting like an absolute amateur and losing his composure. But he was spectacular that year during the regular season, and even pretty good against the Pacers. He'd have games with 26 points, 9 rebounds, 9 assists and 6 steals and 2 blocks, 26 points and 13 assists, 38 and 12, 40 and 10, he would hit timely shots at exactly the moment it was needed. He was like a faster Chauncey Billups or something that year. I think Kyrie is capable of this now, but it's a layer he's not required to access as much because he defers to Luka, but he'd show it sometimes when Luka sat for a game. This is Kyrie's most well-rounded playoff stretch though. I think his OKC series is misunderstood, he basically let himself get doubled and didn't work hard to get extra shots and he became 2019 playoffs Kyle Lowry.

And people are saying he's been "engaged" on defense, but nah. He's been *lockdown* this whole playoff run. Like teams have tried to take advantage of his size and it simply hasn't worked. He's been active and decisive and impactful off ball and on ball. It's a dimension D Mitchell, Trae Young, Dame and most other guards simply don't have.

I was rewatching G1 of the 2015 Finals recently and was struck by just how locked in defensively Kyrie was before he got injured. He's able to ratchet things up in a way that is surprising given his offensive game

[Pelly24]

I think that 2019 Kyrie was probably the best version of him on paper, but he went out very ugly in the playoffs so idk

Every time I watch clips of that 2019 Bucks series it just feels so strange. I don't even remember some crazy defense, it just looked like him shooting like an absolute amateur and losing his composure. But he was spectacular that year during the regular season, and even pretty good against the Pacers. He'd have games with 26 points, 9 rebounds, 9 assists and 6 steals and 2 blocks, 26 points and 13 assists, 38 and 12, 40 and 10, he would hit timely shots at exactly the moment it was needed. He was like a faster Chauncey Billups or something that year. I think Kyrie is capable of this now, but it's a layer he's not required to access as much because he defers to Luka, but he'd show it sometimes when Luka sat for a game. This is Kyrie's most well-rounded playoff stretch though. I think his OKC series is misunderstood, he basically let himself get doubled and didn't work hard to get extra shots and he became 2019 playoffs Kyle Lowry.

And people are saying he's been "engaged" on defense, but nah. He's been *lockdown* this whole playoff run. Like teams have tried to take advantage of his size and it simply hasn't worked. He's been active and decisive and impactful off ball and on ball. It's a dimension D Mitchell, Trae Young, Dame and most other guards simply don't have.

I was rewatching G1 of the 2015 Finals recently and was struck by just how locked in defensively Kyrie was before he got injured. He's able to ratchet things up in a way that is surprising given his offensive game

Right. Moments like those let me know he always had it in him. I think that's kind of the misconception with his game. Apex Kyrie isn't a GOAT-level scorer who will average 40 points for a series or a month. Apex Kyrie is a guy who plays elite defense, scores like 25 ppg extremely efficiently, controls the game, makes timely shots and makes like every big play on both sides of the ball. It's low-key a state that's essentially flawless. He tapped into that a decent amount in 2018-2019, aside from the bucks series. People underestimate his lateral quickness, reflexes, hand strength and overall core strength and all-around speed and coordination. He's able to cover so much ground it's crazy.